What is it?

Destiny 2 is a 1st Person, Open World, Multiplayer, Sci-Fi, Shooter, Action-Adventure.

What’s good?

The graphics are even more gorgeous, the controls are tight and responsive, the fights are even bigger and more exhilarating, a coherent story for a change, a ton of side quests and extra content, and it’s still ridiculously fun. By far the best co-op FPS game going on consoles today.

What’s bad?

Even though the loot system is much better than it used to be it is by no means perfected and ends up mostly being a grind with no focus. The PvP is even worse now than it was in the first game as it’s limited to only 4v4. There’s still a lack of raid or guild finding options in game.

Released: 2017	Bungie	Activision
Completed: 2017-09-16	Completion: 14%	Highest Trophy: Gold

DESTINY 2 – FULL REVIEW

Reflections of the Past

In my Destiny 1 review I described just how disappointed I was with that game. Most of that stemmed from a barely discernible storyline, lackluster PvP and maybe the worst loot system of all time. I don’t want to spend much time rehashing those ideas and you can find my original review right HERE. Unlike the previous release I was not super hyped about Destiny 2. I had heard the original game got better over the expansions but nothing ever drew me back in. When I heard Destiny 2 was going to be a hard character reset though my curiosity was certainly piqued. My expectations were definitely tempered but I was certainly interested. I surely wasn’t holding out hope for a sprawling open world MMO experience. You know that saying, fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me.

Long ago I told myself I wasn’t going to pre-order games anymore but I just can’t help myself. Last year I found some amazing pre-sale deals during the Amazons E3 sale. Most of the games showcased at E3 were 40% off for that week only. So for $49 CAD, basically 1990’s prices, I just couldn’t say no. Consider that when trading in a used game to EB Games within the first two months of its release I’ll get $30 to $40. So I’m essentially paying between $10 to $20 for new releases. Seriously I’ve pre-ordered so many games I would never have bought just because they are cheap as shit. And a lot of them have been big surprises which I’ve ended up really enjoying. Destiny 2 is one of those games.

Dipping My Toes In

As mentioned above, I wasn’t super hyped for this game but the prospect of a blank slate and a full game’s worth of content sold me on giving Destiny another chance. Although the first game was disappointing on so many levels, I couldn’t deny that it was immensely fun. And on some level isn’t that the most important qualifier for a game. Is it fun? All of the other bullshit that normally gets wrapped up into our reviews and rankings for games are tertiary details. Is it pretty, does it sound good, is the story good? These are all really valid questions and, especially in regard to the story, plenty important to me. But really, a game can be a ton of fun without checking any of those boxes. Fortunately for anyone who gives Destiny 2 a chance, the game is firing on all cylinders and checks all the boxes.

Now Destiny 1 was already a beautiful game and the music was exquisite. I don’t know why but even the title screen music sounded epic. When I first booted that game up I didn’t just notice it, I felt it. The whole game felt monumental and in a lot of ways the soundtrack helped sell it as such. It wasn’t until later that I’d come to realize the game was just an empty shell. Maybe a ‘Ghost’ I could say. Here’s looking at you Dinklage. The soundtrack is probably the one and only place I can say Destiny 2 didn’t quite measure up to its predecessor presentation wise. Don’t get me wrong it’s still a good if not great soundtrack. It just doesn’t have the gravitas of the first one.

The Chaos Is All So Beautiful

Visually I can say it’s much more striking than the first game. Now to be completely honest I’m not a technical guy. Don’t ask me about framerates or resolution. I have no idea if the max draw distance is better or worse. I can’t tell you about poly counts or how many key frames the animations have and frankly I don’t give a shit. It’s been two years since I played Destiny 1 but I distinctly remember it feeling very muted, almost sterile. So obviously considering this game sees the tower getting royally fucked up in an attack, that sterile characteristic couldn’t remain. But it’s more than just that. Everything seemed to have an extra layer of detail on it. Like I said it’s been two years but this game just looks better.

I can see things like more complex geometry on small objects, the texturing looks better, the vegetation looks lush and vibrant and even the grass blowing in the wind looks amazing. The weather effects like rain and lightning are also fantastic and Bungie seems to have added some extra particle effects to explosions and fires. But maybe most importantly, there’s just a lot of clutter. Not just in the tower but all over. Maybe I am forgetting more than I think about the first Destiny but this game just has a lot of extra objects that aren’t needed, for any reason what so ever, but they really add to the feel of the areas. It’s grimier, it’s less organized. It just looks more real and lived in. It’s like comparing the streets in Agents of Mayhem to those of Tom Clancy’s The Division.

The Stories We Tell Make the World

Both the graphics and sound being terrific aren’t really earth shattering revelations. They were already terrific in the first game. What wasn’t terrific was the abomination of a story line. In my review of World of Warcraft, which you can read HERE, I mentioned that WoW didn’t have a big central story. It had many smaller stories. It was a rich world with rich cultures and deep histories for each of its races. There were story threads that you could follow from hub area to hub area but really there was no apparent plot other than the Horde and Alliance were at war. Don’t get me wrong there were all kinds of terrific sub plots and dense stories to be had. But they didn’t all connect or even bump into each other. That’s what made it great. That’s what gave it lasting appeal.

Every new zone or hub area was like a new chapter or a new episode in a good TV series. Sometimes the story from one episode to another would continue. Other times it wouldn’t. But it didn’t matter because the new story was fantastic anyway. Sort of like an The X Files monster of the week episode. The original Destiny didn’t really have a story either. But unlike WoW the Destiny world was empty and devoid of interesting stories. Even the main story quests were mundane and repetitive. Ultimately I guess all shooters can be called repetitive, since all we really want to do is move from point A to point B and shoot some shit in the face along the way. But it’s not that simple. There are a lot of shooters that craft great stories out of that basic framework. And Destiny wasn’t just supposed to be a shooter.

Know the Enemy, Know Yourself

Destiny 2 on the other hand does have a cohesive and singularly focused story, sort of. The Red Legion a Cabal faction has attacked Earth, devastated the Citadel and subjugated the god like Traveller. The mystic power known as light which resurrected the Guardians and granted them their exceptional powers has been extinguished. Now the once immortal Guardians are mortal. Weakened and afraid they flee from Earth. Dominus Ghaul the commander of the Red Legion beats you down and leaves you for dead. Somehow your ghost is able to survive and you glean a small fraction of light. With this tiny sliver of light in the darkness you set out on a quest to reunite the Guardian Vanguards and destroy Ghaul. Your quest will see you reunite the Guardians help secure a refugee outpost on Saturn’s moon and rescue Cayde-6 from a Vexxing situation.

Overall the story is far better than what the previous game offered. The quests don’t seem nearly repetitive and there are more of them this time around. There are also a ton of side quests or Adventures as they are called. These quests are usually multiple stage quests that take you around various areas on a single planet. They are pretty involved too, lasting about as long as the main missions. So nothing like the silly patrol quests from Destiny 1. I haven’t finished them all off yet but I have read they open up further quests and objectives which will lead to unlocking specific exotic weapons, which is superb. The only problem I have is they just don’t mesh well with the story. Like in WoW when I’d reach a hub zone I’d want to clean up all the quests before moving on.

Extraneous Details

I didn’t expect the sidequests to be mandatory. Obviously that’s why they’re called sidequests, I get that. These just seemed so superfluous. It got to the point at times it almost felt like the original game. Fly to a planet do a quest or two and then fly to a new planet do a quest or two, rinse repeat. One example is when you go to IO. The Guardian you have gone to collect is upset the Red Legion is draining resources on the planet which are infused by the Traveller’s light. You do one quest and she says oh well guess there’s nothing we can do, we might as well leave. It just seemed like a big waste of time and effort to make an entire planet for that. Shit they could have had her hiding on any of the other planets just as easily.

If Bungie had condensed the planet count the others could have been larger and had more density. Just as I had mentioned in my Destiny Review, I would have liked to have seen Mass Effect Andromeda sized planets. Especially since the Destiny 2 vehicles are pretty cool and fast travel really killed the sparrows necessity. Besides who doesn’t love jumping on a pike and wrecking some face, especially during the public events. A big frontline zone filled with vehicle combat would be sick. Sadly the vehicles are woefully underutilized. The negative prick in me thinks they needed the four planets and the empty space to ensure they have places to fit in paid add-on content down the line. But hey I could always be wrong. But this is a really small complaint. The content is still good, and there’s lots of it.

Those Who Control the Present

The gameplay is as good as it’s ever been and probably better. Controls are still super tight and responsive but they have increased each of the classes talent trees to three. You can further specialize by selecting from two passive skill sets in each. I continued with my Titan from Destiny 1 so I’m a Sentinel, basically a protection based tank. I’ve got three main shielding skills to help me and my teammates survive big firefights, but now I have a kick ass offensive super move. Its offensive but it’s also a shield. Think Captain America shield. This shit ain’t just for blocking. It’s a ton of fun and really makes the class more enjoyable. In Destiny 1 I always got jealous of the other classes supers, they were so cool. My bubble was super useful but it was boring and now I’m Captain America biatches!

Bungie tweaked weapon loadouts too. The shotgun is no longer a secondary weapon and is now a power weapon, which sucks balls. There’s never enough super ammo around so I rarely use the shotgun especially since in the same slot I could put a grenade or rocket launcher. Otherwise now the primary and secondary weapon slots hold the same weapon types. The only difference is the secondary weapons have an elemental effect whereas the primary is just regular kinetic bullets. I really like this change. I always hated the fusion rifle. Now I can carry an auto or pulse rifle in one slot and a scout rifle in the other. Close to medium distance spray and pray with the option to snipe from a distance. I find that loadout super effective and I could care less which is kinetic or elemental.

The only gameplay thing I’ve noticed that just bugs the shit out of me might have been in Destiny 1 but I don’t remember it. The booster jump. In Destiny 2 it’s set as a toggle. So when I jump and hit the boost I keep boosting up until I hit the button to turn the boost off. It just feels so unnatural. I want the boost to work while I hold the button down and then immediately stop boosting when I let go. I really can’t recall how Destiny 1 did it. But this just feels wrong. I know there are a few other games like Titanfall 2 and Mass Effect that had boosted jumps and this is the first time I recall this awkwardness. For all I know there’s an option hiding somewhere to change it but I always forget to look.

Don’t Fight a Battle If You Don’t Gain a Thing

Earlier I mentioned that sound design was one area where the original game was stronger. And I can’t believe I’m going to say this. But I think the PvP was better too. If you read my Destiny review that might come as quite a shock since I ripped it for having shitty multiplayer. As things stand now it was better than what’s offered here. Now instead of having the option for 5v5 or 6v6 it’s locked to 4v4. Why? Fuck it’s 2017. Games like Playerunknown’s battlegrouonds has 100 players, even Battlefield 1 has 64 v 64 on PS4 and that game’s gorgeous with massive maps. Again I realize these are hugely different games. I’m just trying to point out 4v4 is severely limiting. With gameplay as good as it is in Destiny 2 I would love to have some all-out war mode with even just 20v20.

But honestly I guess I just don’t care. I was never big on PvP in WoW either and I played that game for a decade. I just went to games like Battlefield when I wanted good PvP, I guess Destiny 2 will be no different. Although I have a hard time believing I’ll last ten months with the game let alone ten years. Bungie isn’t dropping content the scale of Blizzard does. This game is what Destiny should have been in 2014. This feels like a true first step in a great franchise. That it’s their second step isn’t completely lost on me. It’s not quite too little too late but its close. I’d like them to follow Blizzards release plan. You know a major expansion with a full game worth of content every 2 years and in between serval free content expansions to keep the community alive. Good luck.

The Bottom Line

So far I’ve really been enjoying Destiny 2. I haven’t played nearly enough of it and I still have a lot of content to cover. This is a game I’ll keep coming back to between other games. My trophy count is very low as most of them are locked behind long grinds. I expect I should get all of them aside from the raid trophies given enough time. If you don’t give a shit about PvP and are looking for a fun single player FPS campaign, dynamic co-op gameplay or small team based PvP, you can’t go wrong with Destiny 2. The action is feverish, the shooting whip fast, the abilities empowering and the controls are near perfection. On the other hand if you are looking for large scale PvP, a deep RPG or an involving story, this game might not be for you.

How does it rate...		Other games in that category...
1st Person	A	Fallout 4, Farcry 4, Metro 2033, Dying Light
Open World	A-	Borderlands 2, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Watch Dogs 2
Sci-Fi	A-	Tom Clancy’s: The Division, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Shooter	A++	Battlefield 1, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Doom (2016)
Action / Adventure	A	Titanfall 2, GTA 5, Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

These ratings are based on games I have played at the time of this posting. Additions and Alterations made to game ratings and rankings after this date will not be reflected in the written review. For a fully updated list of games and game rankings please visit Rebel Gaming Canada’s GAMES LIST.

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